Senate passes landmark bill

As many as 12 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. to find work.
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WASHINGTON -- Congress' struggle to overhaul America's immigration law heads next into House-Senate negotiations that could last all summer. They will test President Bush's ability to forge a compromise on an emotional issue in an election year.
As expected, the Senate voted 62-36 Thursday to pass landmark legislation that would put nearly two-thirds of the nation's illegal immigrants on track to eventual U.S. citizenship and create a guest-worker program to give U.S. employers a steady supply of low-skilled foreign labor.
The Senate bill embraces the basic concepts of Bush's call for comprehensive immigration reform and also includes toughened enforcement provisions, increased penalties on employers who hire illegal workers and a combination of fences, technology and increased manpower to help plug the porous U.S.-Mexico border.
Volatile debate
But the volatile debate over immigration next moves to a House-Senate negotiating committee, where lawmakers will be hard pressed to find middle ground between the multilayered Senate bill and a House measure that focuses more on expanded enforcement.
Leaders on both sides say the ultimate outcome is impossible to predict.
Backers of the bipartisan Senate plan are calling on Bush to use the full force of the White House to forge a compromise, but acknowledge that the president is weakened by declining polls and his growing lame-duck status.
"After tonight, whether this bipartisan balance still survives or not really rests in the hands of the man at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
House leaders opposed
House Republican leaders denounce the Senate's legalization provisions as "amnesty" and remain adamantly opposed to the Senate bill. Some declared it all but dead on arrival.
"The nation needs legislation that will secure our borders and provide meaningful immigration reform -- this bill completely misses that mark," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who opposed it. He vowed to rewrite the Senate bill as a member of the House-Senate conference.
Hailed as the most sweeping immigration bill in two decades, the Senate measure emerged from weeks of rancorous deliberations that paralleled massive demonstrations by immigrants and their supporters across the country. The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.
As many as 12 million illegal immigrants, more than half from Mexico, have entered the United States to find work. Their presence has provoked an angry response from many U.S. citizens, who say illegal immigrants cause a multibillion-dollar drain on social services and unfairly wrest jobs from U.S. workers.